Former lecturer aspires for NC from Tsirang

Forty-one year old Kencho Wangmo is the lone woman candidate aspirant for the upcoming National Council (NC) elections from Tsriang.

Kencho Wangmo is a mother of three from Dungkhar Chhoeling village from Kilkhorthang gewog in Tsirang.

She started her career as a high school teacher and also worked as a senior lecturer in Royal University of Bhutan for several years including doing a body of research for publishing in both national and international journals.

She has contributed to writing of modules for college students and also in writing of the environmental science textbook for high school students.

She has a Bachelor’s of Science Degree from Sherubtse College, Kanglung, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Samtse College of Education and a Masters of Science Plant Ecology from The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia.

In 2015, she decided to quit her job and opened an Early Childhood Care and Development center in Damphu intending to connect with the people of her community.

However, she feels she needs a bigger platform to make an impact on lives and decided to contest for the upcoming council elections.

She said that she is interested in joining the NC and not the National Assembly (NA) because then, she can represent her entire dzongkhag whereas a NA Member of Parliament can represent only half of the total gewogs.

According to Kencho Wangmo, NC, being the House of Review, the pertinent changes one makes in the review of policies will eventually impact the nation, her dzongkhag, gewog, chiwog and people in it.

She said the more closely the parliament represents the different segments of society, the more stable its policies are likely to be. The challenge, she added, lies in people not understanding how important it is to have equal gender representation in the parliament.

Kencho Wangmo said that people of her dzongkhag are looking for a change. “Personally, I am confident I could lead them to that change.”

She cited her strengths as her qualification and work experiences with youth over a span of more than 18 years.

Additionally, she feels that her knowledge on various national policies due to her research background will help her identify gaps and provide alternative perspectives on issues.

She has already talked to people and noted down some of their grievances both at the individual level and national levels. If elected, she will make it her utmost priority to address these issues.

So far, 18 candidates have registered from her dzongkhag while her gewog has two aspirant candidates including herself.